Western United hope victory can get their season back on track. (Image: Western United FC -Twitter)
Western United have secured their second win of the season following an encouraging 1-0 win over the Western Sydney Wanderers at AAMI Park.
Following the horrific scenes at the same venue as the derby the day prior, it was a far less dramatic affair both on and off the pitch.
An early goal from Aleksandar Prijovic inside the opening five minutes of the contest was enough for the home side to take all three points while the fan walk-out went in the twentieth minute saw a peaceful early exit for fans in protest of the APL’s decision for Sydney to be the league’s grand final host city.
Speaking post-game on the fan walkouts which have occurred throughout the fixtures this weekend, Aloisi said he was pleased the fans sent a message the right way following Saturday night’s incident which saw more than 150 spectators take to the pitch leaving City goalkeeper Tom Glover, referee Alex King, and a Channel 10 cameraman injured having been hit with a flare.
“[The walk-out was] peaceful, and that’s what we want, and that’s what the club wants,” Aloisi said post-game.
“The club is making sure it’s safe to come to our games, and I know there would have been people who stayed away after seeing images from last night, but we don’t want that.
“We want people to come support our club, our team, but also [support] the game in general.
“And I’m sure not only our club, but every club will make sure everyone’s safe when they come to the football.
“It was not a great incident last [night], of course, we don’t condone that, but we shouldn’t allow a minority dictate what’s going to happen to football in this country.
“Because we’re in a great position in terms of how well we did in the World Cup, a lot of those players have come through the A-League, the A-League is of a good standard.
“There’s a lot of people playing football in this country, we want people to come to the games, this is a time we should stick together and united and make sure people come and watch our football. I’m sure the league will do everything possible to make it safe, not only for the players on the pitch, the officials on the pitch, but people in the stands.”
Further commenting on the events which transpired, Aloisi stated that he understands the anger around the decision, but urged fans to remain peaceful. He also stated that while he was sickened from what occurred and that those involved needed to the ousted from the game, he urged football fans to not turn their backs on the competition.
“Of course, it hurt [seeing the incident], I felt sick watching it, I really did,” he said.
“But we won’t allow that to knock us down, I read so many messages and so many people saying that’s the end of the A-Leagues, Australian football has taken another backwards step.
“We shouldn’t [let this define the league], we should get together and become stronger, and make sure the minority and the idiots that caused that issue last night stay away.
“We’re all upset about the decision…I consider myself a football fan first.
“I was 10 years old when I went to watch my club in Adelaide City play a home grand final, I was a fan then and I’m still a fan now [that I’m] still involved in the game.
“We weren’t happy, let’s demonstrate peacefully, and we don’t accept anything that happened last night.”
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Speaking on his side’s performance, Aloisi was pleased with the result, saying the belief of going back-to-back has not waned despite their slow start to the season.
“We believe we can go all the way again, we know it’s a process, it’s a long season, there are plenty [of] games to be played, we’re [also] getting a lot of players back in,” he said.
“Tongo Doumbia [made his] first start of the season and he’s still finding his legs, Tomoki Imai [made his] first start since Round One, and there are other players coming back from injury that haven’t played a lot of football [this season].
“We definitely can go on a run, there’s no doubt about that.”
Having been criticised for their poor form in the early stages of the campaign, Aloisi hit back at critics saying his side is motivated.
“We’ve been hearing mummers that there are people who don’t want to be here, they don’t want to be at the club, which is ridiculous,” he said.
“But you’re always going to get questioned when you lose, we put that to bed with the result.
“When you’re down the bottom it’s easy to start pointing fingers and looking at excuses, but they [the side] didn’t do that and they haven’t done that.
“They work hard for each other, they work well together.”
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